Gripla

Siðr, Religion and Morality

Declan Taggart — 2023-12-08

The religious semantics of Old Norse siðr have been heavily scrutinized by scholars over the last fifteen years, yet its moral dimensions have almost not been considered at all. In this, research on siðr may reflect the lack of attention paid in general to the morality of worshippers of Old Norse gods, beyond considerations of honour and masculinity. With this article, I aim to fill this gap in scholarship and to assess whether siðr’s moral semantics developed with the Christianization of the North or pre-existed it.
To begin, I survey the earliest surviving instances of siðr and distinguish a range of denotations from their uses, from “religious praxis” to “individual practice” to “moral”. The last of these senses first clearly appears in Harmsól in the twelfth century, although moral dimensions do arise earlier. Despite the dearth of earlier attestation, it is proposed on the basis of those moral dimensions in earlier usage and the term’s geographical spread (as well as its etymological derivation) that siðr “moral” was popular and relevant during the Viking Age.
The article concludes by briefly considering the relationship between morality and religion in the context of siðr, chiefly through the prism of legal change. Christian siðr may be inflexible already in the late Viking Age; however, siðr associated with Old Norse gods may also be less accommodating than is sometimes assumed, given how deeply embedded Old Norse religion was in the lives of its adherents and its possible legal and administrative connections. Siðr may not have meant “moral” for any Old Norse speaker in the same way as moral does for a speaker of modern English, and the evidence is too provisional to promote its use as an emic term for a Viking Age code of conduct. Nevertheless, siðr is the extant word that most captures that concept.

Sæla and Insincerity in Hávamál

Elmar Geir Unnsteinsson — 2023-12-15

Many scholars have assumed that stanzas 8 and 9 in Hávamál, the so-called sæluvísur, carry significant information about the poem’s ethical message. The history of their interpretation has, however, not so far been afforded due attention. On the surface the sæluvísur may appear quite easy to understand; nevertheless, it has often been pointed out that conventional interpretations are riddled with paradox. In this article I take a few illustrative examples from this history and contest a few unconventional interpretations, especially those of Ivar Lindquist and Guðmundur Finnbogason. I also put forward a new interpretation. This interpretation relies on a system of concepts – especially the distinction beween action and state, and between agent and patient – which puts the logical form of the two stanzas in a new light. According to this revised interpretation, stanza 8 tells us that being sæll (happy) requires praise from others, even if the praise is duplicitous. Basically, we should only try to change what others say about us, not what they really believe, because the latter is too difficult. Stanza 9, on the other hand, tells us that to be sæll one must be able to trust one’s own judgement, because the advice given by others can be evil or dangerous. Finally, I argue that this interpretation should make us question the common idea that the ethical message in Hávamál is akin to virtue ethics. More likely, the poem affirms ethical egoism and tries to identify ways to experience pleasure or enjoyment in an unfair world. The meaning of the word sæla or sæll, in and of itself, does not provide a reason to read anything else into the original text.

Genesis and Provenance of the Oldest Soul-and-Body Debate in Old Norse Tradition

Alice Fardin — 2023-12-08

This article traces the manuscript filiation and the routes of textual transmission of Viðrǿða líkams ok sálar, the first soul-and-body debate that is preserved in Old Norse translation, a fairly faithful yet succinct translation of the Anglo-Norman poem known alternatively as Desputisun de l’âme et du corps and Un Samedi par nuit. The Norse text survives today in four manuscripts: AM 619 4to (Old Norwegian Homily Book), AM 696 XXXII 4to, AM 764 4to, and JS 405 8vo. Through a qualitative analysis of concurrent readings, the present study confirms and expands the stemma hypothesized by Ole Widding and Hans Bekker-Nielsen in 1959. The presence in the Norse text of readings typical of a newly identified “Continental tradition” within the Anglo-Norman family of manuscripts indicates that the nowlost manuscript source may have been a French codex, produced in all probability in a Flemish Benedictine monastery (Picardy, northeastern Artois or Hainaut) during the second half of the twelfth century. Subsequently, the codex may have been transferred from Flanders to a sister Benedictine house in Norway—such as Munkeliv in Bergen—via well-attested profitable monastic and trade networks that connected Flemish and Norwegian scriptoria between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries.

Slímusetur in Early Icelandic Law and its European Context

Viðar Pálsson — 2023-12-15

Iceland received new law from its king in 1271, Járnsíða (Ironsides). Among other novelties, it forbade unwelcome and overbearing guests ‘slimesitting’ at other people’s feasts, sitja slímusetri. Analogous articles appear in the Norwegian Landslǫg (National Law, 1274) and Jónsbók (1281).
To understand the king’s newly acquired interest in legislating against slímusetur, it is necessary to appreciate both the local context of legal reform and the European context of political language. Many things that had not been the concern of the king now became so. My present argument is that law forbidding people from imposing themselves on others by enforced hospitality must be understood in its European context and in comparison with similar legal provisions made elsewhere during the high Middle Ages. The two contexts, local and European, are but different viewpoints; however, they are useful in separating the specific and contextual from that which is general. The local context of legal reform in the Norwegian realm during the second half of the thirteenth century is principally a variant on a European theme that rang loud in the central Middle Ages. Essentially, it was a part of a larger, European process of state building.
The introduction to Icelandic law of a prohibition against slímusetur, in Járnsíða and then Jónsbók, was not a response to local political conditions. Mainly, it was symptomatic of the fact that Iceland had now joined a new and different political unity, the Norwegian realm. In Norway, its introduction corresponded better to local conditions. Ultimately, however, the legal measures taken against forced hospitality in Scandinavia were echoes of a European development in which kings and princes increasingly policed their territories as legislators, supreme judges, and protectors of public peace and order.

The end of Árna saga biskups and the cult of St Magnús of Orkney

Haki Antonsson — 2023-12-15

This article begins by focusing on the final chapter of Árna saga biskups, specifically chapter 147 found in the saga’s modern edition. This chapter is only present in a single transcript of the saga, originating from a lost portion of Reykjafjarðarbók. It narrates the events leading to the death of Provost Þorvaldr Helgason in 1290. The account follows his journey to Norway, where he encountered demonic possession. He received temporary relief from this affliction in the Faroes Isles, thanks to the intervention of St Magnús of Orkney and the Virgin Mary, within a church dedicated to St Magnús. However, Þorvaldr’s condition worsened, leading to his demise in Norway. The saga implies a connection between Þorvaldr’s fate and his betrayal of Bishop Árni Þorláksson’s efforts for the Church’s interests during the Staðamál.
St Magnús of Orkney plays a significant role in this narrative. The article contends that his role aligns with the promotion of the Orkney martyr’s cult by the Skálholt bishopric, likely during the time when Árna saga biskups was composed – either in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century. This promotion probably included the crafting of Magnúss saga lengri (‘The Longer Magnúss Saga’) within the same context. Further, the article argues that the interest in St Magnús is tied to his association with the Church and its freedoms. This connection can be traced back to a twelfth-century Latin Life of St Magnús, which was influenced by the biographies of Thomas Becket, especially his martyrdom in defence of the Church. The article also identifies echoes of the Becket corpus in Árna saga, which is unsurprising given the saga’s subject matter and the prominence of the Canterbury martyr within Icelandic clerical circles.
Previous research suggests that the original saga likely concluded in 1290, eight years prior to the central character’s death. However, the exact reasons for this ending remain uncertain. This article reveals how this seemingly insignificant concluding episode to Árna saga biskups combines significant religious and intellectual elements in a manner that the saga’s early audience would have understood. This case study underscores the adaptable and allusively fertile nature of the hagiographic tradition to address contemporary concerns.

The Genesis of a Composite

Lea D. Pokorny — 2023-12-15

Manuscript AM 239 fol. is central for the so-called Helgafell-manuscripts, as it connects the group of some sixteen manuscripts and fragments to the Augustinian house of Helgafell on Snæfellsnes in west Iceland. The manuscript’s significance lies not only in the ownership note on fol. 1r, but also in the fact that it was used as an exemplar for two manuscripts, AM 653 a 4to (with JS fragm. 7) and SÁM 1. The codicological structure of the manuscript is complex and was recently described as a composite consisting of two late-fourteenth-century production units. This article revisits the codicology of AM 239 fol; it shows there are, in fact, three production units from that period and explores the ways in which these relate to one another. The genesis of the manuscript is important to keep in mind when discussing AM 239 fol. as exemplar, as it offers a possible explanation as to why only one of its texts was copied into SÁM 1.

“Eyrsilfr drukkit, þat gerir bana”

Brynja Þorgeirsdóttir — 2023-12-15

This essay offers an examination of an Icelandic thirteenth-century manuscript fragment which represents the earliest extant traces of a medical book in the vernacular in medieval Scandinavian culture. The fragment contains fifty-two articles, describing various ailments and their cures as well as the medical effects of different plants and other materials. The origins of this manuscript remain enigmatic. The essay aims to shed what light is possible on its origins and use. It includes a description of the manuscript’s physical characteristics, an analysis of its literary and sociological context, and a critical discussion of what this may tentatively tell us about the production, purpose, and use of the medical codex to which the fragment once belonged. The manuscript materially exemplifies the movement of Arabic and Latin medical knowledge from Italy to Denmark through Norway to Iceland. The essay further argues that the manuscript’s obscure relationship to five other Old Norse medical books illustrates the common medieval tradition of freely reworking medical material into individual specific contexts. The physical features of the fragment indicate that the codex which it represents was considered both practical and important, and that its purpose was to be used as an instrument in healing practices in thirteenth-century Iceland. An English translation of the fragment’s text is appended.

The Library at Bræðratunga

Katelin Marit Parsons — 2023-12-15

Library institutions did not exist in early modern Iceland, meaning that private ownership was central to the preservation of pre-modern manuscripts and literature. However, personal collections are poorly documented in comparison to the activities of manuscript collectors such as Árni Magnússon. This article examines the case study of Helga Magnúsdóttir (1623–1677) and book ownership at her home of Bræðratunga in South Iceland, concluding that Helga Magnúsdóttir engaged in library-building as a social strategy following the death of her husband, Hákon Gíslason (1614–1652). The inventory of the Bræðratunga estate from 1653 includes only four books, all printed. However, nine manuscripts are conclusively identified as having been at Bræðratunga at least briefly during the period from c. 1653 to 1677, and evidence for the presence of another five items is discussed.
Examination of surviving volumes suggests that Helga’s goal was to participate in an active culture of sharing manuscript material across distances, rather than to accumulate a large stationary collection of printed books and codices for Bræðratunga. She thereby played an important but easily overlooked role in the survival of Old Norse-Icelandic literature in the early modern period. Of the manuscripts at Bræðratunga, at least two likely came from Helga’s childhood home of Munkaþverá in North Iceland, the former site of a Benedictine monastery. Her cousin Bishop Brynjólfur Sveinsson of Skálholt (1605–1675) also gifted books to Helga and her family, and on his death she inherited half of his collection of Icelandic books and manuscripts, making her the owner of one of the most significant collections of Icelandic manuscripts in the country. The survival of books from Helga’s library was negatively impacted by the Fire of Copenhagen in 1728, the extinction of her family line in the eighteenth century as a long-term consequence of the 1707–1709 smallpox epidemic and collector Árni Magnússon’s antagonistic relationship with two of her children’s heirs. Árni’s relationship with Oddur Sigurðsson (1681–1741), Helga’s grandson and last living descendent, did eventually improve; an appendix includes a list of manuscripts that Oddur loaned to Árni and may have come from the library at Bræðratunga.

Háa-Þóra and Þorgerður Hölgabrúður

Haukur Þorgeirsson — 2023-12-15

The Icelandic game of Háa-Þóra (Tall Þóra) is alluded to in a late seventeenth-century source, and a reasonably detailed description of it survives in the eighteenth-century Niðurraðan. A man is dressed up to represent an immensely tall woman, carrying a pole with a woman’s headdress and scarf. This “Tall Þóra” is referred to as a goð in Niðurraðan, a word which refers to pagan gods and idols of pagan gods. Þóra joins the party of revellers as quietly as possible, but once she is in position, a great ruckus ensues as Þóra attacks the guests and in particular the lead singer. Eventually Þóra retreats from the party with her clothes in disarray.
Medieval Icelandic sources record a goddess or ogress with similarities to HáaÞóra, namely Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr. (a) She is noted for her tallness in the First Grammatical Treatise and in Njáls saga. (b) In the Gesta Danorum she is seemingly referred to as Thora. (c) Njáls saga mentions an idol of Þorgerðr having a headdress. (d) The Great Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason tells of a female troll who surreptitiously enters a game played by the king’s men. She behaves violently until she is eventually defeated and forced to retreat by an unnamed man, presumably the king himself. This female troll introduces herself as a friend of Hákon jarl and a recipient of his gifts – she is presumably Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr. The game of Háa-Þóra might be based on an idea similar to this scene in the saga, as a re-enactment of the defeat of a pagan spirit.
A poem in Eddic metre, Þóruljóð, was recorded from oral tradition in the seventeenth century. The Þóra of the poem seems to be the same character as the Háa-Þóra of the game. In the poem, Þóra is a tall and frightening woman who arrives at a Yule feast at the farm of a chieftain, Þorkell. Þorkell welcomes Þóra to his high seat and provides her with a headdress and a cloak. Eventually, Þóra gives Þorkell a sail that she has created and tells him that it will bring him good fortune (“hamingja”) as he sails into battle. This story is reminiscent of the relationship between Hákon jarl and Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr as described in Jómsvíkinga saga. Hákon gives Þorgerðr gifts, including a human sacrifice, and Þorgerðr rewards him by intervening in his favour during a sea battle where she controls the wind.
The similarities between Háa-Þóra, Þóra of Þóruljóð and Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr are enough to suggest that the three figures have a common origin.

The Rovers’ Rhymes by Reverend Guðmundur Erlendsson in Fell and European News Ballads

Þórunn Sigurðardóttir — 2023-12-15

News ballads are poems about recent events or the poets’ contemporaries that were printed on cheap paper and sold by street vendors or performed/sung in the squares and streets of towns and cities in Europe in the early modern period. This genre has not been studied in Icelandic literary history hitherto, since poems belonging to news ballads (or disaster ballads) have not been printed but only preserved in little-known manuscripts. We can see, however, from the book of poems by pastor Guðmundur Erlendsson (primarily in the manuscripts JS 232 4to and Lbs 1055 4to, preserved in the National Library of Iceland, Reykjavík) that seventeenth-century Icelandic poets knew of news ballads. Here I examine four of his poems belonging to this genre. One deals with an earthquake in Italy in 1627; the second describes the fall of the German city Magdeburg in 1631; the third describes the execution of King Charles I of England in grotesque and horrendous detail; and the fourth portrays the king himself, bidding farewell to his wife and children and to the crown. One may infer from the texts of Guðmundur’s poems that they were intended for performance and entertainment. They feature dramatic staging, an exciting plot, and a clear moral message addressed to the audience at the end. All the poems are based on real events that happened in the poet’s time; that is, natural disasters, disasters of war, and political execution. They are presumably translations of European ballads, but the poet places the events in the context of the reality of his audience in Iceland. The poems demonstrate that the genre of news ballads reached Iceland no later than the early seventeenth century, thus expanding the repertoire of early modern Icelandic poetry.
Also of note is the fact that Guðmundur Erlendsson’s Rover rhymes do not deal with ancient heroes or fictional characters from the distant past, as was the general rule for seventeenth-century rhyme cycles, but with tragic events from the poet’s own time, the so-called “Turkish Raid” of 1627. In the rhymes, the trail of the raiders is traced around the country; place names are mentioned to support the veracity of the narrative, as are the names of people assaulted or captured by the raiders. The narrative is dramatic and suspenseful, and descriptions of the pirates’ actions are presented in grotesque detail. The last rhyme contains a warning to the audience and a moral message. The terrible events happened because of the disobedience and immorality of Icelanders, and the poet urges his compatriots to obey the Lord and pray for peace in the country, just as he did in the ballads. Thus, the poet not only translated European news ballads into Icelandic, introducing the genre to his audience/readers, but he also used the genre’s characteristics and subject matter in an innovative way in a rhyme cycle on a contemporary event in Iceland. It is entirely possible that the influence of news ballads was more prevalent in Icelandic poetry of later centuries. That needs, however, further research.

“Should she tell a story …”

Jón Karl Helgason — 2023-12-15

This paper analyses the narration in Eiríkur Laxdal’s Saga Ólafs Þórhallasonar. Scholars placing Eiríkur’s writing within the context of literary history have generally taken one of three viewpoints. Some who encountered Ólafssaga in the nineteenth century and even later seem to have regarded it as a rather poor collection of Icelandic folk tales. Since the mid-twentieth century, however, the text has generally been considered to mark the advent of the novel in Iceland. The third approach views Ólafssaga as a product of an ancient narrative tradition that falls somewhere between traditional folk tales and novels. While not fully rejecting the first two views, the article compares Eiríkur’s work to three elaborate classical works of narrative fiction: Homer’s Odyssey, the Arabic story-cycle The Thousand and One Nights, and the French medieval narrative The Quest of the Holy Grail. The analysis, inspired by Tzvetan Todorov’s The Poetics of Prose, reveals that Ólafssaga can be seen as part of a centuries-long literary tradition of layered narratives that focus on storytelling.